Alexander Ovechkin scored three times, Nicklas Backstrom added three assists, and Braden Holtby made 33 saves as the Washington Capitals overcame a chippy Minnesota Wild team and some questionable officiating to earn a 4-3 victory at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Gr8 was dynamite in this contest scoring three times in the middle frame and generating 15 shot attempts, including 10 shots on goal in 19:47 of action. All three tallies were the result of Ovechkin going to the net, and the second marker came on the power play, which was important given the recent slump from that unit (0 for 19 before the Ovi Empty Net PPG in Nashville). Washington’s power play looked like its old self on that second goal.

Backstrom is just a wizard on the ice. His play to keep the puck in on the third Gr8 marker was incredible (the Wild unsuccessfully challenged it too), and then he finished it off with some great wall work. The line of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie was excellent and between the three of them, they had 16 of the Capitals 33 shots on goal.

Holtby gave up two late goals after it was 3-1 and then 4-2, the first of which came on a power play that the Wild received when Justin Williams was called for cross checking right after Andre Burakovsky was flattened with a dirty hit from behind. Mike Leggo and Frederick “Ship him back to Quebec” L’Ecuyer failed to whistle the infraction against the Wild. They called a curious contest on Thursday, but once again Washington was too good for the opponents and the bad zebras. Both referees also missed a dirty butt end by Mikael Granlund to the face of Evgeny Kuznetsov after the second Minnesota goal on the neutral zone draw. #92 left the game and did not return, so his status for Saturday’s game in Dallas is up in the air.

The last Wild tally came with four seconds left after Jason Chimera had made it 4-2 with an empty net marker with just 52 ticks remaining. That tally, Chimmer’s 15th of the season, was set up by great work from John Carlson in the corner and then Tom Wilson, who worked the puck out of the zone to spring the speedy #25.

Carlson had his best game since returning from injury getting an assist and going +2 in 23:46 of ice time. He looked like his old self in this one and helped get the power play to finally score with a keeper in place. His hard shot went off of the back wall right to Ovechkin on the 2nd goal. He had his legs back and was really physical and strong on the puck in the corners.

Ovechkin now has 34 goals and leads Chicago’s Patrick Kane by one in the Rocket Richard race. Holtby is now 27-1-3 in his last 32 starts and has 35 wins on the season.

Wins are the important thing there, as both co-MVP’s and the others on this club only care about the “W’s.” Ovechkin has enough individual trophies, and at this point, he only wants that big silver one they give out in June. But make no mistake about it, this club still relies on him to lead the way when it comes to turning on red lights.

Overall, the Caps played a very solid road game and when things looked to go off of the rails with some Minnesota dirty play and shaky zebra influence, Washington maintained their composure to hold off a desperate Wild team. Holtby made some big saves and Backstrom cleared a puck from the door step late in regulation en route to another Capitals victory.

The Caps record is now an out of this world 40-9-4 (84 points) and they close out their three game road trip in Big D on Saturday night. Per CSN’s Chuck Gormley, the Caps are 0-6-1 against the Stars since 2008, OUCH! Washington has a chance to finally knock off a very fast Dallas squad, but they’ll need a really strong and disciplined game (stay out of the box!) plus good gap control to combat the likes of Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn on their home turf.

Notes: Mike Richards, who was nicked up in the Nashville game, suited up and logged 11:03 on his 31st birthday…the Caps were destroyed on draws, 46-22, but Backstrom was 12-9…Zach Parise had three assists for the Wild…Minnesota out shot the Caps 36-33 and it was 72-56 overall in shot attempts…both teams were 1 for 5 on the power play…Karl Alzner was +2 in 22:07 of ice time. He had a strong game.

Comments Off on Alex Ovechkin’s Hat Trick Carries the Caps Over the Wild

The “Beasts of the East” are clearly the team to beat in the Eastern Conference this year and possibly the club with the best shot at Lord Stanley’s Cup given the easier route to the finals in the Eastern Conference. They don’t appear to have any weaknesses, and this is a club that lost top 4 defensemen Dennis Seidenberg earlier in the year to season ending injury. But they have lots of depth.

So with the Caps having to face a club that came in to Saturday’s matinee on a 13-0-1 streak one would think they would be ready to compete right out of the gate.

They weren’t.

They didn’t skate well.

Their passing was atrocious and they didn’t pay the price to win the one on one battles in the first 30 minutes.

If not for Braden Holtby’s goaltending, a 3-0 deficit could’ve been at least six or seven. #70 was really good in the crease, but his teammates didn’t help him out.

You can’t do that when your playoff chances are on the line and especially not against a club as strong as Boston.

Washington’s line of Jason Chimera, Eric Fehr, and Joel Ward had their usual strong game and they scored late in period two after Mike Green, who was another bright spot, made a great rush up the ice. The Capitals then threw the kitchen sink at Bruins goalie Chad Johnson (31 saves) in the third period, but he was too good and then a terrible charging call on Alex Ovechkin took away any momentum the Caps had built to that stage.

The Bruins would score on that tally, and they scored on one other power play to go 2 for 4 on the game while Washington was 0 for 3.

Boston’s fast start and the special teams were essentially the difference in the game.

Make no mistake about it, the Bruins deserved to win this contest. They played better over the course of the 60 minutes.

But anyone who thinks that the officiating in this contest was decent is smoking some serious stuff. I’ve tried to give the zebras more of a break this season and for the most part, they’ve been better overall. However, the job that Tim Peel and Frederick L’Ecuyer did today in a critical game for Washington was disgraceful.

Of Boston’s four power plays, three were not even penalties. John Erskine’s delay of game hit the glass before exiting the rink (shown clearly on replay), Jason Chimera’s slashing call was a joke and at worst, Johnny Boychuk should’ve gone off with him if that stuff is going to be called. Finally, as mentioned above, the Ovechkin charge was an absolute mirage of a penalty.

In addition, during the Caps power play, right before the Ovechkin “charge” call, a clear trip on the Gr8 was missed that would’ve put Washington on a 5 on 3 advantage.

Simply put, Peel and L’Ecuyer should not get paid for their work today.

Also, why are some of these calls not reviewable by replay? The NFL has it and so does NCAA college basketball. Pucks going over the glass is an easily reviewable event!

But enough on the zebras and league policy, because complaining about those things is pretty much like talking to a brick wall.

This was an important game for Washington and they didn’t come out with the intensity they needed against a super Boston team.

Once again, make no mistake about it, the Bruins deserved the win.

The Caps do go 2-1-2 during a stretch that looked nearly impossible a few weeks ago, so they can take pride in this run against some of the NHL elite.

But now they need to get down to business and find ways to win down the stretch. They have eight games left and likely need 12 or 13 points to get in the post season dance.

Tomorrow night in Nashville against the Predators they desperately need a win.

Coming out with intensity from the opening draw, and getting pucks and bodies to the front of the opponents’ net like Caps Comcast analyst Alan May repeatedly calls for, would be a really good way to start.

The Washington Capitals did a lot of things right and several things wrong on Thursday night but the bottom line was the Caps got a much needed and deserved victory in Tampa by the score of 4-3.

Eric Fehr potted two tallies and Mathieu Perreault had three assists as Coach Adam Oates third line, that also includes Joel Ward, was the primary reason the Caps were victorious.

Jay Beagle had the eventual game winner to make it 4-1 with 12:31 to go but if you watched the entire game, you knew it was not going to be an easy finish against a very talented Lightning club. The Caps continue to have their struggles in their own zone with poor coverage and turnovers. The last eight plus minutes basically turned into “The Count Floyd Show” as the team survived one scary shift after another en route to a nailbiting win.

Beagle won some big draws late and Braden Holtby, who made several huge stops in this one but also had a breakdown or two himself, held strong at the finish.

It was a game the Caps had to have to stay in the playoff race and they worked hard to win it. The effort has certainly amped up here during this three game winning streak and Washington also did a good job of not taking bad penalties in this one. The Capitals only went to the sin bin twice and thwarted both Tampa power plays.

On offense, Washington has 15 goals in three games. The power play looks great and clicked early on its only try and that goal by Troy Brouwer on a pretty passing play set the tone. With the Caps going 8 for their last 15 with the man advantage the Bolts knew they could not afford to take penalties. They did take some infractions but fortunately for them, zebras Frederic L’Ecuyer and Steve Kozari were pretty much letting things go in this one.

When Oates took over it was believed that Washington’s offense would return and it certainly has in the last week. The Caps had a lot of sustained pressure and poured 39 shots on Mathieu Garon. In this streak they are getting the biscuit deep and using the cycle game to generate chances. They are also crashing the net much more. Tonight they won the game with three of the four goals coming from their bottom two lines.

What is concerning is the Caps defensive zone play. There are times when Washington just doesn’t look like they know what they are doing in their own end. Oates must address this to keep this streak going because Holtby certainly bailed the team out several times in the first 50 minutes of this one.

Fortunately the head coach has two days to work on the defensive zone because one thing their next opponent, the New York Rangers, will do on Sunday is test Washington in their own end with hard work and a strong cycle game.

But that is for tomorrow and Saturday, on Thursday the Caps got a Florida sweep to move to 5-8-1. They still have issues on the defensive side and their top two lines could use some personnel upgrades. A Brooks Laich return soon would be an upgrade over Wojtek Wolski, for sure. It would also be nice if GM George McPhee could make a move while the team is winning to get another top six winger because playing Jason Chimera and/or Matt Hendricks with Mike Ribeiro and Alex Ovechkin isn’t a long term recipe for success.

One thing is becoming clear though, Oates is a smart hockey guy and he has this team’s attention.

The Hall of Fame bench boss has this hockey club playing hard and improving, despite some big holes in the lineup.

Notes: Washington won the faceoff battle, 36-29. That is a very important stat on the road. Beagle was 8-3 from the dot, Perreault won six of eight draws, while Nicklas Backstrom was 13-10…Karl Alzner had his best game of the season and logged 26:12 to lead the Caps in ice time…John Erskine was excellent again and played a whopping 23:42 on the blue line…Ribeiro and Ovechkin were both -2 on the night but I thought #9 was good. He made some super two way plays and his wingers just aren’t finishing right now. The Gr8 had defensive zone issues but he was better on D on his very last shift at the end of the game. His positioning and posture appear to be his biggest problems in his own end.